Food Mission: 12 Stones Noodle House

First chanced upon this stall at Golden Shoe (i.e. Market Street Food Centre) after finishing my lunch (at my long time favourite noodle stall Say Seng). One of the items on the signboard – Shrimp Paste Chicken Chop Noodles caught my attention. It is very rare to see shrimp paste chicken with noodles (as shrimp paste chicken itself is more commonly available as a standalone dish in tze char stalls and restauranats). And so decided that I’ll definitely be back to check out this stall 🙂

Got to do so on a Friday afternoon sometime back in October (Fridays are usually more relaxed) as I decided to have lunch at Raffles Place instead for a change in scenery, before heading to office to finish off a submission.

Not much crowd yet as it was a little over 12. It could also be the dim lightning as some may not be aware of the stall’s presence. Nevertheless, when I walked up to the stall proper, this caught my attention ……

Hmm, never knew this stall originated from a old Cantonese restauarant Loy Sum Juan 黎三元酒家 which had closed down recently. And that this stall is a comeback in a slightly different form/version.

Proceeded to order the Shrimp Paste Chicken With Noodles which I have set out to try.

Not a chilli taker so requested for the noodles to be without chilli and beansprouts (don’t like as well). So it ended up being a dry tossed noodle (lightly sauced – which reminded me of the dry tossed noodles I had in Hong Kong), with 3 huge pieces of shrimp paste chicken on top – all for $4 a bowl.

The shrimp paste chicken does up to its billing as Loy Sum Juan’s signature dish ….. and is definitely the highlight of the meal. Not too oily, while the chicken retains its tenderness and the prawn paste not overpowering the chicken. It was much later when I googled further for Loy Sum Juan that I found out that shrimp paste chicken was an original creation back when Loy Sum Juan first started. Ah …… so that’s how shrimp paste chicken (aka har geong gai) has become a staple dish in many tze char and restaurants these days. Interesting tibit indeed!

As for the noodles, it was well tossed without being too heavy on the saucing. Anymore heavier and it would have been overdone, considering that the main highlight of the dish is the chicken. Personally, I think the dish would be even better if they used a thinner, bamboo beaten type of noodle instead …… but which would mean a higher cost of production as well.

Definitely an interesting find …… and now I know where to go to satisfy my har geong gai craving without having to look for dining partners to share a plate 🙂

More importantly, with this stall, the legacy of Loy Sum Juan’s signature shrimp paste chicken still remains.